After
waiting for some time on the news regarding my upcoming disembarkation, It
seems that there is now an information about it. The latest news that I heard
and was notified on memo was that who will be the guys replacing us and I
already saw on paper on who is going to replace me. For now it's just a name
drop and there is no specific details yet on the date and flight schedule, but
it's good to hear that my return to the Philippines would be very soon.
Upon
confirming this information, I immediately prepared to pack my luggage in case
there's a possibility that my disembarkation will be on short notice. The only problem I have for the moment is the
"where" and not the when part on disembarkation. Its rumoured that
its possible that my batch will disembark in Ecuador which from what I know is
not exactly a "convenient" for travellers especially on the joining /
departing crew. From what I heard Ecuador , Is very similar to the Philippines
when it comes to transacting business. CORRUPT, TOTALLY DISHONEST and EXPLOITING POWER FOR
PERSONAL GAIN .
From
what I heard on some of the crew , customs or to whom has the authority in
charge in disembarkation and embarkation of ship's crew , ask bribes to have
crew get past security checks on their luggage and this is not the worst - from
what I heard almost everyone in charge in taking the crew to the airport are
asking bribes as well , from agent , service boat personnel all the way to the
customs in charge. A very big hassle and annoyance over sailors. Anyway this is
just rumours I heard from the crew , I still have to witness this first hand to
verify if it's true.
At
October 17, 2015 in the afternoon , this ship heaved up anchor and went ahead
to Ecuador finally after more than a week of being at anchorage, From the
latest news, this time it's not Esmeralda and it will be libertad area. I have
no information on what is the procedures but , I guess I'd find out sooner or
later.
Out
of the blue and all of a sudden , I received news early in the morning of
October 19, 2015 about our flight details to go home. From what I recall, Me ,
Pump man Sepulveda , A.B. "Ryan" and oiler teston will be
disembarking and catching a flight on American airline flight from Ecuador
going to Miami then connecting flight to los Angeles California , then going to
Narita, Japan then finally to manila Philippines.
It
was totally unexpected that Fitter Lorenzo would be left behind and apparently
there's a rumour that the reason why he got left behind was because his
replacement backed out when it came to his knowledge that he would earn less.
Anyway as a result fitter is very unhappy on the news , expecting that he will
disembark along with us. As for oiler teston , he himself isn't happy that he'd
be going home early
As
for the moment, the four of us aren't happy to learn that our disembarkation
will be in south america given that its not exactly travel friendly.
On
October 20th it was finally confirmed that our disembarkation and flight will
be on the 22nd and that crew who will replace us had already left the airport
in manila and is enroute to ecuador
Few days later.............
After
a long and tiring voyage hurling myself back to the Philippine, I'm finally
here. However despite my success being away for some time - I am greeting with
much horror and despair on what i left behind before I went overseas. My home
has been much devastated with internal conflict amongst family members and its
sad to say that nothing has changed from where I left off several months ago.
My house looked more like a dying planet when I arrived , everything was either
dilapidated, broken or non-existent at all.
I guess this is always part of being an OFW , as soon as you depart away from home and to a faraway land, the people and life we left behind will immediately descend to chaos and on my case this is what just exactly happened. Soon as I arrived to the Philippines and went home , all my personal savings are immediately stripped and channeled to the house. Can you imagine my savings worth of 110,000 just immediately went kaput in over less than three weeks ???! Worst part is that I haven't even spent that money on personal luxuries and essential equipment I need for work. Its more like that I’m working for nothing
I guess this is always part of being an OFW , as soon as you depart away from home and to a faraway land, the people and life we left behind will immediately descend to chaos and on my case this is what just exactly happened. Soon as I arrived to the Philippines and went home , all my personal savings are immediately stripped and channeled to the house. Can you imagine my savings worth of 110,000 just immediately went kaput in over less than three weeks ???! Worst part is that I haven't even spent that money on personal luxuries and essential equipment I need for work. Its more like that I’m working for nothing
Apparently
based on what my sister has told me , the situation in the house is in total
financial chaos and I'm caught in the middle of it. Worst part is that I'm the
only one in the house who is financially capable as of the
moment.
Sad as it may seemed , but it looks like that my vacation here in the Philippines will be the shortest and most of the time will be spent in replacing and acquiring equipment that I will need on my next contract. I'm already broke and yet I haven't bought yet the equipment I need. It's obvious that as soon as I get then last remaining money left I had on the company , I will be processing my papers immediately for the January 2016 departure
Sad as it may seemed , but it looks like that my vacation here in the Philippines will be the shortest and most of the time will be spent in replacing and acquiring equipment that I will need on my next contract. I'm already broke and yet I haven't bought yet the equipment I need. It's obvious that as soon as I get then last remaining money left I had on the company , I will be processing my papers immediately for the January 2016 departure
In
other news,.
It
looks like there are some news going on lately in international airports about
some sort of airport security planting evidence on travelers both tourist and
overseas Filipino workers. This caused a lot of scare on travelers that most
people going in and out on the NAIA international airport had to pack their
luggage's in plastic to avoid bullets being slipped in. Travelers and OFW's who
are unlucky enough to fall for this bullet scam will get to pay a nasty
extortion fine of 80,000 Philippine Pesos to the beloved crooked aviation
security group (who are apparently the ones behind who planted the false bullet
evidence on helpless unlucky victim)
Lately
the incident of "Bullet" scam in NAIA international airport per year
had an increase of 750 percent in just within a month. So basically criminals
and crooked people in the Philippine airports are getting bold doing their
extorting business
I
don’t want to believe it either but , recently NAIA international airport in
the Philippines has been proclaimed to be one of the worst airports around the
world by travelers magazine's and from seeing it on my point of
view as a traveler OFW. I could say that they're definitely living up to their name as the worst.
